


Shiny

by JuicyPotatoChip



Category: Hilda (Cartoon)
Genre: Alfur is SHINY, Angst, Bartell loves his Shiny Boyfriend, Implied Bullying, M/M, merelves, mermaid au, them Tiny fishies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:27:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28651233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuicyPotatoChip/pseuds/JuicyPotatoChip
Summary: Alfur Adric was a small merelf tasked with the delivery of documents from the northern county to the southern county. Although this seems like a simple task, Alfur ends up finding himself lost, and his fate is being held in the hands of the violent Bragga clan.
Relationships: Alfur and Adeline (platonic), Alfur and Bartell, Alfur/Bartell (Hilda)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36





	1. Delivery Elf

Alfur filtered carefully through the kelp documents, stopping now and then to cut a kelp leaf off of its parent stalk. After collecting all of the documents he was after, Alfur stacked them neatly and slipped them into his bookbag. With his treasures in tow, the merelf eased his way through the kelp library and set his course to a cave with a small entrance, visible from the now thinning kelp forest. Small and colorful corals grew around the cave, and all over the rocks that the cave had been carved into.

Upon entering the cave, Alfur spotted a small group of merelves. One of the mer with a sky blue tail, and white stripes was telling something to the others, but Alfur couldn't quite pick up what they were saying. This made sense, since all of the merelves were huddled together in a circle of sorts, and the speaker had a low, hushed tone. It was likely that the group were doing some gossiping, of some sorts, as another one of the mer had an unpleased expression on her face. Her expression lightened up and stretched into a smile once she noticed Alfur’s presence. 

“Alfur!” she exclaimed, turning her entire body to face him. “Do you have the documents, then?”. “I have them here, Adeline.” Alfur confirmed, tugging on his bag’s shoulder strap for emphasis. The other merelves immediately noticed that Adeline had turned her attention away from their conversation. It wasn’t hard to notice anything that Adeline did: she had a bold teal and yellow tail, with touches of magenta here and there. She was the pinnacle of beauty among merelves with the way that her colors danced around each other, fighting to be the first color noticed.  
The cave was filled with the sound of someone clearing their throat, and all eyes were turned towards a tall, slender merelf with a turquoise tail which was decorated with fuchsia dots and stripes. “Do you have the documents Adric?” The elf asked in a demanding tone. Before Alfur could respond, he was quickly interrupted by that same elf. “Very well then, you know what to do. Get those documents to our southern neighbors in less than a moon, then return home, immediately”. Alfur nodded, and gripped his bag’s shoulder strap tightly, whilst also resisting the urge to roll his eyes. The previously stated instructions had been given to him so many times, he might as well have etched them into his brain with a chisel. There was a short and awkward silence in the room as all of the merelves waited for further instruction. After none came, Alfur turned to depart on his delivery-boy adventure.

The petit merelf paused about two inches after exiting the cave, being startled by a very, very audible: “Just be careful not to let the Bragga spot you! It would be a shame if you were to get turned into the bedsheets of one of those brutes''. Alfur rolled his eyes and tried his best to block out the snickers and laughter that were now echoing their way out of the cave.

_____________________________________________________________________________________  
Alfur felt as though he had been swimming for days. In reality, it had only been a couple of hours since he had left to embark on his ‘little’ journey. His body had begun to ache, and it didn’t help that he kept letting his mind wander. There had been many times where he’d start thinking about one topic or another, and then snap back into reality only to find himself swimming off course.  
“It’s not like I can really help myself” Alfur thought, staring out at the vast mass of blue ahead of him. “There are just so many things to worry about! What if I get swallowed by a large fish? I would die, and noone would be able to access these documents ever again! I could get caught by a fisherman, buried in a storm, or get plucked from the water by a seagull!” Alfur stopped himself suddenly. He looked at his surroundings, only to realize he wasn’t on his way to the county’s southern neighborhood anymore. This was unfortunate. He was lost.

“Oh, you just had to do this to yourself!” the tiny merelf let out in a wail, once it had sunk in that he truly was lost. “Good job Alfur! You might as well… you might..” Alfur let out a sigh, and at a loss on what to do with himself, he decided to find shelter to rest for the night after looking at the sky, deciding that it was getting late. Correction: it was late. The sky was dark, and the moon shone down on Alfur’s red-orange tail, which reflected the light like a waxed marble floor. Alfur cringed a bit looking down at his tail. It was only one color, which wasn’t very bright. It was like red gold if he were to try and explain it to someone. It wasn’t a very attractive color to elven standards, and the other merelves around him had made it their life’s mission to make sure Alfur knew that.

Bioluminescent microbes started to glow, giving the ocean the illusion of a starry night sky. Alfur looked out at the dancing microbes and pulled his tail to his chest, having found a cozy cluster of rocks and sea plants. It would probably be easier to find his way back to the path tomorrow, even if he did have an idea of how far away he was.  
The fact that moonlight was able to reach down far enough to reflect off his tail so brightly suggested that he was closer to land, or human territory. There were tales of human bells and other treasures being found in shallower waters, however, the stories about these kinds of things ended with a gruesome telling of an encounter with the Bragga clan. Alfur decided that he would need a good night’s rest if he was going to continue his journey in the morning.

Alfur had to shift his position a couple of times to find a comfortable one for sleeping, but eventually found a good one. Once he had filtered any thoughts about danger by logically tearing them apart, Alfur let himself close his eyes and start to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

It was sunrise when Alfur woke up. Light from the sun filtered through the water, orange and pink beams of light graced the ocean floor like spotlights. Alfur slowly sat up, and began to dust himself free of the sand that had collected on his body overnight. He still felt awfully sore, which was rather unfortunate. Alas, a long swim can do such things to an unsuspecting merelf.

Minerals lingered in the water around him for some time before gracefully landing on the sea bed as they were brushed from Alfur’s body. Once he was mostly conscious, the merelf pushed at the ocean floor with his tail so that he could start swimming again. Although he was still waking up, Alfur’s head was already full of thoughts. The unfamiliar scenery, the now visible sky, and getting back on track for the task he was working on were all popular subjects at the moment.  
Although, thinking about his job sparked another train of thought.

“ _An entire moon._ ” he thought to himself.

“I was given an entire moon to make a week-long trip”. Alfur scoffed.

“Do they really think that I need an entire moon to make this trip?” Alfur started to become increasingly angry as he swam. Since when had the delegation thought of him as so _pathetic_ that he needed four weeks to make a one week trip? Alfur ranted to himself for some time as he swam on. After swimming for some time, he felt a tug on his bag. Alfur looked down to see that in all of his anger, he’d let himself drift closer to the ocean floor, allowing an annoyingly shaped rock to snatch his bag.

Now even more aggravated, the little merelf began to tug violently on the bag, with no avail. Having been blinded by anger and annoyance, Alfur continued to pull until his efforts jerked him backwards, and violently. After gaining control of himself Alfur’s anger switched to panic. The strap on his book bag had snapped.

Alfur wasn’t sure whether to chastise himself, or simply admit defeat and move on. He stood still in shock for a few moments, before reaching out for the now broken bag. He slowly ran his hands over the now damaged bag, trying his best to think through his trance of emotions. After mulling several thoughts over in his head, Alfur finally let his anger resurface.

“If I’m going to be given a moon to complete a week-long trip,” Alfur said out loud, as if it would do something “Then I’m going to take some of this time for myself”. When nothing happened, Alfur nervously looked around, and picked a direction to start swimming in. A large area with many sea plants and glistening objects caught his eye. Reluctantly, he set off, determined to explore his new course.

Alfur would be lying if he had said he hadn’t enjoyed the first bit of his swim. There were several unfamiliar plants, and lots of new forms of aquatic life to observe. The sheer amount of unique and new sights were enough to help Alfur cool down, and mostly forget about his previous troubles.

The scenery was very beautiful: Alfur was surprised that there were no clans or tribes living in this area, as the sights were most certainly making him want to stay. The small merelf continued to swim around coral, past colorful fish, and every now and then dodge a possible threat such as a dangerous looking rock, or a dark cave where who knows what could be living down there.

“I can’t believe I’ve never been here before” Alfur breathed to himself, taking a moment to stop and stare at a cluster of kelps and corals. As he continued to admire the colors, Alfur remembered the documents. Panic started to set in as he looked around him, frantically trying to find the place he had come from. Alfur started darting around the reefs, keeping an eye out for something, anything familiar that would lead him back to his broken bag.

To his dismay, the terrain around him only grew less familiar as he swam. Eventually, all of his frantic swimming left Alfur even more sore and tired than before. It became apparent that he wouldn’t find his bag, or finish his task any time soon.

“The delegation was right to give me an entire month,” he sighed to himself whilst sinking to the ocean floor. Any previous feelings were now turned numb by self disappointment. Alfur slowly let these feelings, as well as a wave of defeat take him over.

“I’m not going to leave this place alive,” Alfur sighed to himself, quietly “and even if I do…”. Alfur went limp, a clear image of the broken book bag played in his mind. The delegation most definitely would not be pleased if he came back with the news that he’d so carelessly left the documents lying around while he’d wandered away, losing the precious information in the process.

Alfur continued to wallow in despair when he thought he heard voices: he wasn’t sure at first, but after listening for a few moments, he was. Those were definitely voices, and Alfur wasn’t sure who’s. The merelf immediately swam for a small cluster of plants upon realizing that the voices were coming closer to his position.

Although terrified, Alfur steadied his breathing with the intention of eavesdropping, all whilst deciding whether to make himself known, or try to sneak away. He wished he hadn’t stayed.

“-and did you see his face? He won’t ever try and disrespect the Bragga clan ever again.” A gruff voice said. “It won’t be likely he’ll ever think of our name-” Alfur stopped listening right there.

“ _Our name_?...our name, Bragga...” He thought to himself. He started to panic again. No, this couldn’t be happening. This was not happening. Alfur stayed in his spot, absolutely paralyzed by fear when the voice’s owners swam into his field of vision. From the way they decorated themselves with pearls and jewels, as well as their tails, Alfur was able to confirm his fears. The merevles who were now dangerously close to him were indeed, from the Bragga clan.

The merelves continued to chat, and Alfur’s heart continued to pound. He tried everything in his power to take control over himself, but to no avail. Before he could stop himself, Alfur let out a sound that could be described as a combination of a sharp inhale, exhale, and whimper all at once.

The group now in front of him stopped talking at an instant upon hearing this strange noise. Many of them now wore confused, and shocked faces. Alfur threw his hands over his mouth, and his heart threatened to burst out of his chest. The Bragga mer started looking around to identify the odd sound. Alfur noticed a merelf slightly larger than his peers, and decorated with much more jewelry pushed past the others, and stopped about one elven foot away from Alfur’s little hiding spot.

Instead of the usual coral spear that the Bragga were known for welding, this merelf grasped a golden trident, which was embellished with multiple colorful jewels. He held his chin out proudly, displaying a braided beard with varying sizes of pearls woven into each section. Alfur held in several whimpers, and a few screams as the large bearded Bragga swam in front of him. The lack of distance between the two of them had become undesirably close a long time ago.

Alfur’s fight or flight instincts kicked in, and they were screaming flight. Fly, go, get out of here. Alfur let his hands fall from his mouth, and he darted from his spot, swimming faster than he’d ever swum in his entire existence. His already sore muscles started screaming at him to slow down, but he didn’t listen. He was fleeing for his life. However, Alfur immediately knew he had made the wrong decision when a loud voice bellowed out “THIS WAY! Don’t let it get away, go!”.

“This is it, this is how I die, this is how I go,”, Alfur used some of his remaining strength and will to boost his speed for a short time. He didn’t dare look behind him, fearing that this would somehow slow him down.

Alfur’s muscles seared with pain as he pushed forward. He could hear voices behind him yelling for his capture as we weaved around plants and rock formations. Alfur dove through a thick cluster of kelps as an attempt to lose his pursuers, but quickly regretted this specific course of action as a kelp leaf smacked him right on the eyes.  
The next set of events were a blur. Alfur yellped, and placed his hands over his now stinging eyes, but not a split second later did he ram head first into a large wall of rock. Solid rock. Next thing he knew, he was cradling his head in his hands, as a large shadow loomed over him. Alfur looked up, to see the same merelf from before, trident resting in a vice-like grip, and an unpleasant smirk worn by the figure who now towered over him.

Alfur let out a whimper of defeat, while the taller figure let out a scoff, and then a chuckle. He reached out for Alfur, who curled up in response, hoping for a miracle. Adrenaline pumped through Alfur’s veins, and he could have sworn that his heart was now in his throat. As the Bragga merelf inched closer, a boost of bravery (or stupidity, only God could tell) made its way through Alfur’s body.

“W-wait!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands out in front of him as a pathetic attempt at self-defense. The Bragga elf came to a halt immediately, and raised an eyebrow.

“I-I-I uh,” Alfur stuttered out, before catching his tongue “-you, uh, I, nice, err, tiara?” Alfur squeaked out that last word, and for a moment Alfur believed that his overall statement was completely inaudible, judging by the even more confused expression on the larger merelf’s face. Alfur held his breath, and the awkward smile he didn’t know he had until his pursuer smiled.

“I suppose it’s nice. Not my _favorite_ piece but,” he paused to brush some of his long silver hair out of his face “, it seems like this one will most certainly do”. Alfur couldn’t believe his eyes. Or his ears. Or any of his sensory factors for that matter. Shouldn’t this Bragga be tearing him limb from limb, and eating the flesh off his bones? It made no sense, but if one snide compliment worked…

“Y-yes! It looks very nice, it especially compliments the uh…” Alfur paused, trying to think of something that would make him sound charismatic enough for the fates to spare his life. That probably wouldn’t happen, as his corner-er was now wearing an impatient expression, as if daring Alfur to go on.

“It compliments your beard! Uh, which looks very nice, by the way, with all of those pearls''. Alfur grinned a goofy, terrified grin. The other merelf in turn, wore a smirk, and supported a proud posture. He seemed to be beckoning Alfur to continue, who complied.

“You must be very strong to be able to wear and support all of those necklaces without getting tired, mr.uhmm…” Alfur wanted very badly to hit himself over the head. If he had shoulder angels, they would both be slapping him, telling him to stop being stupid.

“Bartell.” Alfur was snapped out of his trance of thought by the booming voice of his current captor. Alfur also couldn’t help but wonder where ‘Bartell’s’ group had all gone.

“...Bartell…” Alfur repeated meekly, looking up at him with a newfound sense of curiousness. There was a moment of awkward silence as the pair started at each other, each with a different sense of anticipation.

The silence was broken by Bartell first.

“What brings you out to our territory, little one?” he mused, crossing his arms but placing one hand on his chin. Alfur stuttered out a little, before giving his best answer.

“I was er, delivering something.” He let out, finally bringing himself to sit up. His head ached greatly as he shifted in elevation, causing him to wince. Bartell raised an eyebrow, and scanned Alfur’s figure.

“You don’t have anything with you,” he demanded “Tell me what you’re really doing out here.”  
Alfur gulped, and continued to nervously fix his posture, despite his aches and pains.

“I… I was delivering something but I uh… I lost it''. Alfur tried his best to not sound guilty and scared. Bartell gave a not-so-subtle mh-hm. He then reached out for Alfur once more, startling the smaller merelf.

“It seems as though what you lost was pretty important,” he stated, grabbing Alfur at his wrists “It also seems you’ll need help to find it. So, tell me…” with his hands now on Alfur’s shoulders, Bartell gently lifted his tiny catch up from the ocean floor “where might we find this thing you lost”?

Alfur stared in disbelief. Was Bartell, a Bragga, of all merelves, offering to help him? Or did he let on to Alfur’s little charade, and is now trying to butter him up instead? Alfur sputtered before admitting to the elf grabbing him his predicament.

“I, I’m a bit lost myself, you see”. Bartell nodded and moved his hands so that one of his were now holding both of Alfur’s in a strong, yet surprisingly gentle grip.

“Maybe you’ll be able to find your place easier after a rest,” Bartell started to swim backwards, beckoning at Alfur to come with him willingly “You should come stay with us for the night. Something as small and scrawny as you has no business wandering such vast and dangerous waters alone.”

Alfur was speechless. Had he just been offered to stay a night with the most brutal, gruesome merelves to ever swim the seven seas? This had to be a trap. Unless these merelves weren’t Bragga, and simply a similar looking bunch. Alfur swam backwards as well, pulling against Bartell’s own tug.

“Pardon me Bartell, sir, but where exactly would we be going?” Alfur braced himself for the worst. He was unbeknownst to how the larger merelf would react, and he especially wasn’t sure if it was going to be in a kindly manner. Bartell froze, and looked down at Alfur in what seemed like a mixture of confusion and amusement.

“To the bell caves. Where else?”

“to my certain death” Alfur thought to himself, but kept his mouth shut for that bit. “You said caves? Who else lives there, or is it just you and your… friends from earlier?”

Alfur was stalling and he knew it. Bartell would most certainly catch on soon, and then they’d both know it.

“The bell caves belong to the Bragga clan, I thought you’d be aware of that? You are from this ocean, are you not?”

“O-oh! Well, where I’m from we just call it the Bragga, erm, caves”

Bartell didn’t seem too pleased by this, but continued to insist.

“ You hit your head very hard. You should take some time to heal, and to rest.”

Alfur bit his lip. On one hand, he had the option to go and stay a night with a group of supposedly violent strangers that could very likely be his last night, and on the other, he could mindlessly wander throughout the ocean, hoping that he might catch a glimpse of his bookbag, and by a miracle get it to the southern county on time. And that’s if he ever did find the bag. If he didn’t, he’d have nowhere to go. He’d be outcast, fired and scorned for failing to complete the most simple of tasks. At least he’d be somewhat welcome if he went to stay with the Bragga…

“You’re right,” Alfur stated, managing to wiggle a hand loose and place it on his head “I do feel quite a bit sore. I could use some rest”.

Bartell smiled triumphantly. Alfur knew that he was going to regret this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the support through chapters one and two!   
> As well as that, thank you for being patient while I worked on this chapter.
> 
> I hope that the writing is good and not too hard to read, I only edited this chapter once after proofreading.
> 
> Anways, onto a little info that might be a little useful to know for this chapter: the Bragga family in this au are very much obsessed with shiny things, and so they tend to hoard treasure. They also live in a system of caves right next to the underwater bell.
> 
> That's it for now, enjoy reading the actually chapter :)

To say Alfur had calmed down would have been a flat out lie. He was still shaken, down to the core due to his encounter with the Bragga clan. And it didn’t help that the encounter was still ongoing.

Alfur couldn’t tell if he was being escorted like a prisoner, or an important person of some fancy title. To be fair to himself, Alfur noted the fact that this was his first time being escorted by anyone, anywhere, and for any purpose. If he weren’t being escorted by rumored psychopaths', Alfur would have admitted that this was kind of nice.

The terrain around Alfur and his current party became eerily unfamiliar as they swam. Despite being in shallower waters than he was used to, everything around them seemed darker than usual, which caused the aura of the area to be all-over more depressing than if not.  The group finally reached a group of underwater caves surrounding a gigantic structure. Alfur wasn’t completely what the structure was called, but it was large, and it was rather shiny. It must’ve fallen into the water rather recently, as it looked almost new.

Aflur’s heart rate rose once more as he and his group swam closer and closer to one of the many eerie cave entrances. Upon finally reaching the entrance, Alfur froze up. He couldn’t bring himself to willingly swim further. The dark cave in front of him screamed all kinds of red flags. There was no way anyone actually lived there. 

He was going to go in there, and the floor would be littered with bodies and tail skins. He would start freaking out, and the Bragga who were currently surrounding him would drop their act, skin him alive, and devour his flesh from his bones. Alfur was contemplating making another run for it, but he was snapped out of his thoughts by a small shove at his back. Alfur turned slightly and caught a glance at a disgruntled looking Bragga. He turned forward quickly to start swimming again only to be surprised by Bartell, who put one of his arms under Alfur’s, wrapping it around Alfur’s torso.

Alfur recognized this gesture, in his clan's standards at least. It’s what you would do if you thought someone needed support swimming because they looked tired or injured. Alfur cursed himself. Bartell had probably thought Alfur’s sudden freeze was because of fatigue, and now any protesting would be more obvious than a whale washed up on a beach.

Alfur bit the insides of his mouth to give himself other than terror to focus on. Being larger than Alfur, Bartell naturally swam faster than Alfur would be, or could have in any given situation. The group all too quickly entered the cave, and Alfur closed his eyes for a moment, stressing about what would come next. When he felt that Bartell had stopped swimming, Alfur slowly opened his eyes. 

He glanced around, preparing himself for the expected bodies, but instead, his ocular sense was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bioluminescence, and shiny, golden objects strewn about the cave. How had he gotten somewhere from dark and depressing to light, shiny and beautiful in a matter of seconds? He looked back to see a set of scarlet red curtains. They were being closed by a pair of Bragga he’d not seen before, and they seemed to be made of a thick material. It would make sense that they would block any light from reaching the outside. Upon looking around, Alfur realized that there was more than one cave with red curtains draped across what could be mistaken for an entrance, or exit. 

Alfur looked up at Bartell, who looked down at Alfur in return, looking proud. Alfur smiled awkwardly, before avoiding eye contact. Alfur nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw one of the red curtain ‘doors’ sweep open, another Bragga clansman swimming out of the cave the curtains were covering.

“Bartell!” the clansman shouted, swimming up towards Bartell and his group at an alarmingly fast speed “You’ve returned!” 

Many other sets of curtains were being swept aside from their respective caves, and countless merelves emerged from them. Alfur nearly stopped breathing. There were so many of them! And he was so much smaller than all of them, how did his captors expect his flesh to feed so many merelves?

Bartell slipped his arm out from under his supportive position with Alfur, and swam out to greet his fellow clan members. Alfur watched as Bartell gave hugs to each of the merelves that demanded one, smiling as he did so. Some merelves demanded to know how Bartell’s trip had been. Others began to tell stories of their own, and some of them pointed at Alfur and asked Bartell some things that Alfur couldn’t quite hear or understand.

Alfur began panicking once more. The amount of other merelves in the room was becoming too much to handle, and the pointing and staring didn’t help. He looked around the room, desperate to find a way out of this place.

Alfur was pulled from his thoughts when Bartell suddenly pulled Alfur to his side, squeezing the smaller merelf’s body close to his own. Alfur let out a squeak, and couldn’t help but notice the increased number of eyes now staring at him. Alfur gulped. There were a  _ lot _ more Bragga here than Alfur had run into originally. 

“This is Alfur!” Bartell boomed out, pulling Alfur closer. “He’ll be staying with us for some time”

Alfur couldn’t even bring himself to open his mouth in order to protest. There were several pairs of eyes glued to him. This was something that he had never experienced before, and he genuinely wished that he never had. This had all become too much for him to handle. Alfur’s heart raced as Bartell continued to chat and answer questions to his fellow clan members, before the group started to slowly dissolve as merelves left the conversation and went back to their own caves.

Bartell looked down at Aflur, who at this point had all color drained completely from his face. Bartell gave him a look, and turned their position to be facing each other. Alfur looked up at Bartell, lower lip trembling.

“Are you alright, small one?” Bartell asked, resting his hands on Alfur’s shoulders. 

Alfur didn’t know how to respond so he didn’t. But it was them that he noticed that he’d started trembling. When had that happened? Bartell, unsure what to do himself scooped Alfur into his arms, and swam him to another cave entrance covered by scarlet drapes. Once inside, Bartell rested Alfur down in a golden box lined with velvet cushions. He loomed over Alfur for some time before asking him again.

“Are you… feeling unwell?” Alfur got a grip of himself and sat up. He looked Bartell in the eye for a moment, searching his mind for the right thing to say, which was hard. What were you supposed to say in a situation like this? I thought you were going to murder me, and you’re not so thanks for that? Why aren’t you murdering me? Why didn’t you feed me to your clan back there? Alfur almost felt offended that he hadn’t been eaten yet.

“I-i just,” Alfur wanted to spew out all of his concerns, telling about his terrors and how he had expected to be dead by now, but caught himself. Perhaps Bartell was unaware that other merelves knew what his clan was known for? Perhaps he was trying to build Alfur’s trust. Either way, Alfur was not about to take any chances.

“I’m not exactly used to being around so many people, and uh, I’m  _ very _ tired.” This wasn’t exactly a lie, but Alfur took extra care to make sure he didn’t sound as if he was hiding something either. Alfur patiently held his breath as he waited for a response from Bartell.

“You must’ve swam pretty far to be tired enough to be shaking.” Bartell stated. Alfur was confident Bartell had just called him out on his bluff, and went to defend himself, but Bartell seemed to have an understanding expresion. He was almost sure Bartell had smiled at him, too. Bartell swam away, and eased himself into another golden box on the other side of the room.

“Good night, then.” Bartell called out in a friendly tone. Alfur hesitated, but laid back down in his own box. 

“G-good night”


End file.
